Meet Tena Edlin -
FMS & FHS TAG Teacher
District Mentor Coach
This is Tena’s 25th year teaching at Fairfield Middle School. Before teaching TAG, she taught science, study skills, and reading/language arts at FMS. Tena started her career in Fort Worth, TX, teaching kindergarten at a Hebrew Day School. Shalom, y’all! She’s an Iowa girl, though. Tena’s parents both graduated from FHS (1961 & 1968), and her grandma was in the first graduating class (1940) of the current FHS building. Tena started school here in Fairfield in Barb McLarney’s kindergarten class at Pence, and she credits her 2nd grade teacher Gloria Countryman with being the teacher who she wanted to be when she grew up.
Tena became a National Board Certified Teacher in 2007 and renewed that certification in 2017. She earned her M.A. in Professional Teaching from Morningside University in 2014 and is currently pursuing her Ph.D. in Education from Drake University. Tena is also the FMS Drama Coach and has directed 25 plays and musicals at FMS including this year’s Law & Order: Rhymes and Misdemeanors.
Tena and her husband Andrew have been married for 8 years, and their family includes Holly, an ELL teacher in Estherville, and Zach, a computer programmer in Greensboro, NC. Zach’s wife Sam is an engineer and manager with Procter & Gamble, and they are parents to Alice, 5, and Tilly, 2. Tena loves being a Grammie and is excited to read to Alice’s kindergarten class over spring break. The Edlin family wouldn’t be complete without their miniature goldendoodle, Georgie.
Tena finds joy in reading, traveling, spending time with family and friends, cheering for Hawkeye football, baking pies, and performing (She’ll be playing the Baker’s Wife in Into the Woods with Four Corners Musical Theatre Company in Farmington, NM, during the month of July, if you feel like a road trip!). She’s also more than a little obsessed with The Sound of Music.
Most of all, Tena loves teaching. She loves challenging her students, learning with them, cheering them on as they find their own voices, and helping the next generation of young teachers find their place in the profession. “Teacher” isn’t just a job for Tena; it’s who she is. She is proud to be a teacher in Fairfield.
